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For Their Unconquerable Souls	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 29229 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Eleven�Comfort
and Beauty

�� Narcissa
dressed carefully.

�� A red gown,
it would be, for multiple reasons. It would match the room in which she stood
to welcome Potter to her home; it would soften her face and lend color to her
features; it would touch something deep in Potter, at least if he was as much of
a Healer as she thought he was; it would echo the Heart�s Blessing spell, which
was a benefit for her if not for Potter.

�� She had to
remember what they owed him, even in the moments when it was most difficult.

�� She stepped
back from her mirror and cocked her head critically. The mirror extended itself
when she motioned with one finger. It drew molten silver from a source
implanted in the wall behind it, and spread glittering arms along the walls,
flashing here her face, there the back of her head, there the middle of her
spine, the place she always found most difficult to see without this trick. A
murmured spell, and the spot of mirror remaining directly in front of her glowed
with a spell that assembled the reflections in her mind and let her see herself
as she was, and not merely as
flattering light or fancy would have her.

�� Narcissa
turned and swirled her skirts behind her, then calmed herself with a faint
smile and a tap of her foot. Yes, she looked better than well. Another spell
caused the carpet to become softer, which cushioned her feet in the fancy
slippers she wore. The magic ran in a faint, fuzzy wave beneath the door. It
would continue down the stairs and blend seamlessly with the carpet in the
entrance hall, where she would rendezvous with Potter, ensuring she walked in
comfort all the way.

�� Before she
left, she turned with a hand on the door and craned her neck to look around the
room, trying to see it with a stranger�s eyes. Potter would never have
experienced this level of comfort and beauty before. If she could imagine how
he would react to her chambers, then she might be able to think of how he would
react to the rest of the house, and what changes she should order the elves to
make.

�� Her rooms
resembled a secluded bower in an enclosed garden; Narcissa had always preferred
crowded space, over the mere
largeness that Lucius favored or the number of discrete ornaments in discrete places
that Draco gravitated to. The ceiling was high, but from it hung braided skeins
of mirrors, visible wards, bells, crystal, and gems, mostly emeralds,
sapphires, and firegems, those cousins to opals which cast a milky iridescence
over a background of solid color, rather than the other way around. The lowest
of the skeins nearly brushed Narcissa�s hair. The bed was one of a number of
cushioned shelves planted along the walls, blending with the windowsills and
the ordinary cabinets in which Narcissa kept her collections of shells and
ferns. The cushions glowed red, blue, and green, changing color subtly with the
turning of the skeins. A net of rugs covered the floor, which itself was carpeted
beneath them, the patterns rippling from the carpet onto the rugs without a
break. Magic had made and matched the carpet, but Narcissa had bought the rugs
from ordinary weavers. She preferred the touch of real craftsmanship to that
which she knew would come if she used spells.

�� She
suspected Potter would gape at all the extravagance and luxury and declare it
waste. He would flinch and be unhappy with the skeins hanging over him. He
wouldn�t see the point of making many sitting places soft, when most people
needed only one bed to sleep in. And no doubt he would never notice that the
floor beneath him had both carpet and rugs; Narcissa doubted that he was sensitive
to textures.

�� Narcissa
let her eyelids fall as she shut the door behind her. There was no reason for
her to give up her own beauties; Potter would not be intruding into her rooms.
But they had chosen fine, comfortable rooms for him as well, because there were
no poor ones in the Manor. How to convince him to use them and like them? Because
he would have to like being part of the family, or Narcissa doubted he would
stay long, and it was easier to introduce someone to objects he would praise
than to make him care for the Malfoys as people.

�� Be
solicitous for his comfort, of course. Take his concerns seriously. Neither
Draco nor Lucius would, Narcissa knew; Draco had already told her slightly
incredulously that Potter seemed to care more for his libraries than for the
room where he slept, and Lucius seemed to think springing the Manor�s finery as
a surprise on Potter was the best course. He did delight in catching Potter off-guard.

�� But Potter
already had confidence issues, Narcissa thought, as she passed down the first staircase
and beside her husband�s rooms. A glance in that direction showed that Lucius
had engaged his wards again. And a house-elf stood outside the door, his face
stern and his arms folded. Narcissa smiled at recognizing Rogers, certainly the
most valuable elf the Malfoys owned, and one that Narcissa could have wished in
her own family when she was a little girl.

�� Good
evening, Rogers,� she said. �You are looking forwards to our new arrival?�

�� Rogers is
not,� said the elf, his ears twitching to the sides and then flattening like
the ears of a sulky donkey. �He must be trained.
He will not know the Malfoy code of conduct. And Master Draco says that he
does not want to know the rules.� He gave an emphatic nod, though whether to
the words themselves or to some private confirmation of them in his head,
Narcissa wasn�t sure. �And rules is being life.�

�� Narcissa
shook her head. �I think Master Draco prejudiced against Master Harry,� she
said. �Because Harry does not do exactly what Draco wants when he wants, he
decides that means he�s disobedient. But��

�� Master
Harry is not being an elf,� said Rogers, frowning. �He is not needing to obey
every request Master Draco makes of him.�

�� I know
that.� Narcissa smiled again. �But do you remember what Draco acted like when
he was a baby and had acquired that pet Kneazle?�

�� Dreadful,�
said Rogers promptly. �Master Draco was not knowing how to treat something
small but independent of him. He pulled its tail, and it clawed his hand.�

�� Exactly,�
said Narcissa. �And by the time he learned better, the Kneazle was wary and wouldn�t
come near him again for fear of being tormented. I want you, Rogers, to prevent
that from happening this time.�

�� Master
Draco shall not be alienating Master Harry,� said Rogers, and clicked his heels
together as he bowed his head. Narcissa had never managed to determine how he
could make such a loud noise with his feet when he wore no shoes, but then,
some mysteries of house-elves should belong to the house-elves. �Rogers is
promising it.�

�� Very good,
Rogers.� Narcissa turned and swept around a turn in the corridor, confident
that she could trust the safety of both Lucius�s body and Draco�s temper to their
old and faithful retainer.

*

�� Potter
emerged from the fireplace with soot in his hair. Well, perhaps the shower in
his rooms would be sufficient to take care of that. Narcissa found herself
using a faint smile as she stepped forwards and extended her hands. Despite her
doubts about Potter becoming part of their family permanently unless Lucius and
Draco tried to understand him better�both his strengths and his limitations�she did enjoy the chance to play one of her least-used
roles and welcome a new family member home. She had only done it before after
Draco�s birth. And a grown man would be a better spectator of the grand rooms
than an infant would.

�� Mr.
Potter. Be welcome to our home, as one who shares our blood and has our good
will in mind.�

�� Potter
bowed, and even though Narcissa thought he was only doing it to conceal his
surprise, she admired the formal gesture. Perhaps he wasn�t entirely hopeless
after all.

�� Of course,
he was more slender than he should be, to the point that one of the wrists
sticking out of his sleeves looked like a stick, and his hair was a disaster,
and his glasses were tackier than they should be. But perhaps the glasses could
stay. They added a certain charming air of ordinariness
to his face, and Narcissa thought they could do with that when people began
to question, incredulously, why Harry Potter was staying with the Malfoys.

�� His eyes
darting to every landscape and tapestry in the room, past the warm carpets
whilst noticing their red and green colors, and up to the small starlamps that
lit the distant ceilings of the hall, he took her hands. �I�thank you, Mrs.
Malfoy. Of course, maybe I should say that your husband shares my blood rather
than the other way around.�

�� His voice
rose in a hopeful lilt at the end. Narcissa nearly gave herself away by raising
an eyebrow. He sounded as though he wanted her to dispute with him.

�� Why?

�� And then of
course she understood, as completely and thoroughly as she had anticipated his
discomfort with the size and beauty of the house. Because it would comfort him to be in opposition to us. He�s been in
opposition to us for so long. And he still does not define this as a permanent
arrangement in his own mind. He resists and stamps his heels. He wants us to
act more like the Malfoys he remembers.

�� Narcissa
could not please him there; she would not deliberately antagonize someone who
had saved her husband�s life with shared blood, though she could wish it had
been someone else, who already knew more of their traditions. But Potter would
do. And when he had had some instruction and earned himself a place in the household
by a little judicious struggle with Draco and Lucius, he would more than do. She
had to admit that.

�� She smiled,
and watched his eyes widen at the gesture. No, he had not expected any of this.
�When someone has done as much for us as you have, Mr. Potter, how one speaks
of the sharing does not matter as much as the fact of that sharing.� She rolled
a shoulder, and a floating candle darted over to them. Potter blinked at that,
too.� �If you will follow me? I chose
your room, and whilst it is magnificent, it is also some distance from the
entrance.�

�� She had
done that deliberately, to give Potter time to grow used to the splendor of the
house as they passed through it. But it would do no good to say so. Potter
would only accuse her of manipulating his reactions, and not understand if
Narcissa explained that of course she
was. One thing honest, guileless people like Potter found hard to comprehend
was the use of manipulation for comforting ends.

�� But in this
case, perhaps she should have explained it to him, because her manipulation seemed
to fail. The higher they got, the more Potter�s shoulders tensed, and the one
time he smiled, Narcissa was sure he was thinking of something else. Not even
the glorious colors of the staircase they passed, echoing deserts, forests,
seascapes, and other scenes she had thought would appeal to him, with the
passion for Quidditch and being outside that Draco had described in him,
soothed him.

��

�� Really,
Mrs. Malfoy,� he blurted out as they reached the top of the staircase, �I don�t
need a magnificent room. A
comfortable one will do fine.�

�� Narcissa
threw him a quick smile over her shoulder, and caught his eyes, wide and
staring, and the wordless way his hands twisted together.

�� And a
shudder of sweet compassion passed through her and melted some of the previous
prejudice she�d had against him. Ah, she should have known. Yes, Potter was
guileless, but she had been thinking of that word strictly in the sense that it
meant he did not understand the gestures and small rituals any pure-blood
wizard would have gauged the meaning of in moments. It also meant that he did not perform manipulations of his own. And
his discomfort was pure and real.

�� Combine
that with what Draco had said about Potter not believing that he deserved the small
beauties of ordinary human life, and Narcissa understood her new son much
better. He would come to understand his surroundings only when he internalized
the idea that he didn�t deprive anyone else by enjoying them.

�� She would
need to relax him, or he would never reach that point. And so she let go of
enough of her own reserve�easier than she had expected it to be, when he had
shown her so much of himself�in order to make a small joke. �I�m afraid there
are no rooms in the Manor that are not both, Mr. Potter,� she said, with some
truth, though it omitted the dungeons. �You will simply need to tolerate it.�

�� She went
on, though she heard him stumble slightly with surprise as he followed her. She
muffled her smile with her wrist pressed against her mouth as they rounded
several more corners in the corridor and came to a stop at last before an oak
door with a bronze knocker in the middle of it. She touched the knocker, and
heard Harry shuffle behind her as though he thought that would cause a ward to spring
out of the door and devour him.

�� It did activate the wards, but since he was
the one staying in this room, he would have complete control over them. Perhaps
he did not appreciate that�Draco had told her about the insufficiency of the
wards on Harry�s house�but he would have them nonetheless. The quiet, continued
presence of certain objects could cause those objects to become necessary to one�s
existence. Narcissa, who had had to put up with the panic of the Malfoy
house-elves when she ordered them to buy new cutlery on her marriage, had ample
experience with the process.

�� She
believed that Harry should be able to understand
those objects, however, and not simply have his understanding of them
assumed, as his understanding of pure-blood customs was assumed by Draco and Lucius.
That might be flattering, but it was not practical. She said, �This knocker is
the center of your wards. It will secure them across the door so that no one
but you can disturb them whilst you�re in the room. When you come out, only
touch the knocker if you wish to change them�to allow others to have access to
your room when you�re elsewhere, for example. Of course, the house-elves have
access no matter what the settings of the wards.� She flicked her fingers
towards the knocker this time and whispered the Latin command for them to
transfer their allegiance from the Malfoy family in general to Harry in
particular. She didn�t think Harry needed to know that word just yet. If the worst happened and he
tried to betray them or invite the Weasleys in without their permission, then
at least he would not be able to take over other rooms in the Manor.

�� Harry gave
an audible gasp as they stepped into the room. Narcissa glanced around, and
smiled a little. She supposed she could understand Harry�s overwhelmed
response, since this chamber was one of the most beautiful in the house. At the
same time, its natural resemblances should, she hoped, give him that comforting
feeling of being outside and not enclosed in walls.

�� She had
assigned Harry a suite of rooms with a library, a loo, and a bedroom. After
some thought, she had decided against giving him any of the sets that had a
dining room attached; that would only grant him an excuse to eat in his room
and avoid contact with them at meals. He must become acclimated to their
presence more quickly than that, if this small experiment was to work at all.

�� This room
had once been decorated in violent shades of green and silver; it had been Lucius�s
room for the year before he went to Hogwarts, with his father apparently intent
on pushing his heir into Slytherin against the slimmest odds that he might go
elsewhere. Narcissa had to admit to some contempt for Abraxas Malfoy, both because
he did not have the slightest understanding of Lucius�s character�or he would
have known that room not necessary�and because his choices in green and silver
had been hideous. She had redecorated, and she had chosen green for the
dominant color.

�� Both carpet
and tapestries were green, but Narcissa had varied the color of the tapestries
more, modeling them on the various shades of sunlight that would appear through
the leaves of a forest in summer. Towards the end, therefore, they parted into
blue and gold, as the sun and the sky would begin to appear through such
leaves. She had let some of the wood show, because that would give the
simulacra of trunks and increase the sense of being outdoors. She had striven
hard to keep a delicate balance between the beauty of the wood and the
impression that she could not afford enough tapestries to cover the entire room;
she had known Death Eaters� wives who would have thought the latter. Even if
they never saw it, even if this room remained one that only those of their blood
sojourned in and those only occasionally, Narcissa was not inclined to show
weakness.

�� The theme
continued in the bed, which had posts and rods and legs�though they were hard to see from this angle,
Narcissa had to admit; she had not considered the view from the door
sufficiently�carved to look like branches and roots. Glimpses of bark-faces
shone now and then from the headboard. Narcissa was not fond of them, but the
carver she had hired had insisted on putting them in, and she had supposed
genius must have its little freaks. Besides, she could hide them sufficiently
with the green curtains and the brown and green pillows. Harry looked a little
heartsick as he stared at them. Narcissa wondered if they reminded him
irresistibly of something evil from his own past. She would ask Rogers to
change their colors subtly and watch the expressions on Harry�s face when he
did so.

�� And of
course there were cabinets among the tapestries and on the walls, especially near
the library door, mimicking the crevices that might open between the roots and
inside the trunks of hollow trees. Narcissa thought that Harry might appreciate
them as places to put his notes, Healing books, and anything else that he was
not ready to share with his family.

�� I do hope
you appreciate it,� Narcissa said, calculating that enough time had passed to
allow Harry to stew in silence and turning towards him. She made sure to keep
her voice calm, so that Harry would know she was anxious for his comfort, not
for his gratitude. �Some of the other rooms are larger, but they don�t have
attached libraries. The house-elves have brought up all the books we have on
healing, and of course there are spaces for any you brought with you.�

�� Harry spent
a moment staring at the floor. Narcissa expected the protest, but not the words
that began it.

�� Mrs. Malfoy,�
he said.

�� Narcissa
was startled for a moment, and then chided herself. Of course a pure-blood would know to call me by my first name now, but
he is not a pure-blood. I will be caught up in Lucius and Draco�s blindness next
if I do not watch myself.

�� Please
call me Narcissa.� She smiled again�Harry seemed to need a lot of smiling�and sent
the candle floating to cast more shadows around the room. Perhaps it would seem
less intimidating to him if it looked smaller. �That�s a privilege that family
members have.�

�� And she did
want to hear the name from his lips, she realized. He was charming in his own
way, as Draco might have been if he had grown up hardened to battle-danger but
unskilled in the more subtle ways of living. Sometimes Narcissa thought Draco
might have been better off if she and Lucius had raised him that way.

�� But there
were rules of pure-blood conduct that could be bent and broken, as Lucius and
Draco were continually demonstrating, and there were those that it was good
sense to obey. Wars were temporary, subtlety eternal.

�� I�you�ve
done too much for me,� Harry said. �I
appreciate this, of course, but I don�t deserve it�

Draco
was right. He does have some of the traits of a keen observer, though of course
I am the one who contributed them.

�I�m only the mediwizard who�s
treating your husband. Not even a full Healer! You don�t need to�� He paused,
and Narcissa knew as clearly as if his chest had opened to show her the words
written on his heart that he had been about to say something about bribery. She
let it pass, this time. They had committed their own sins of misunderstanding.
�You don�t need to put yourself out for me in any way,� he ended up saying.

Narcissa dropped her smile and
moved closer to him. She would need to speak sternly to him, that was clear. He
had understood the grandeur and comfort of the Manor, but he refused to apply
it to himself. He would not even see that the sheer size of the house meant
that the family was unlikely to have been �put out� for him; they would hardly
have needed to change their rooms or their habits.

�Harry,� Narcissa said, and made
her voice lulling, �do you know how many people have ever saved my husband�s
life?�

�� Er.� Discomfort
wriggled and darted across Harry�s face like the silverfish her dear sister
Bellatrix had once tried to raise for pets. �Two? Four?�

�� One,�
Narcissa said. �And that was years ago, and the man who did it probably did it
for his own reasons.� She let the pain at the thought of Severus show; Harry
would relax more around emotions he could understand. Besides, it was not hard
to be bitter at the thought of the way she had extended her hands to Severus
and he had turned his back and walked away, mocking himself and the Malfoys
with every step. At least Harry had accepted
the status in their family that the Malfoys offered. �You have done it
twice in a few days, and for reasons that we now know are not self-interested.
You will excuse me, I hope, if I honor you as I think you deserve.�

�� Get him used to the thought of deserving.
Draco will do it in his own way, I must do it in mine, and Lucius will do just
fine as a patient.

�� Harry
stared at the floor for moments so long that Narcissa thought he might follow
Severus away after all. And then he looked up and nodded.

�� Thank
you,� he whispered.

�� Narcissa
held out her hands and waited patiently until he took them. He stamped and
shuffled and shifted his bag out of the way. Narcissa leaned in to lightly kiss
his cheek. In her head, she incanted a silent blessing, not quite a spell, but
words the Black family had sometimes used to turn fate sweet.

�� Unexpected
emotion seized her, as if she had been turned sweet by a spell herself. She
wished she could have gathered Harry into her arms and held him there. She
wished she could have asked if he had ever
known an embrace, or someone to tell him he deserved things. She did not
think so, from the way he stood.

�� This is what comes of letting Muggles raise
a wizard child.

�� And then
the tide was gone, and it was a relief to retreat into ritual words. �Be
welcome to our home, Harry,� she said. �Everything you may need or wish for is
at your disposal. Including the good-will of everyone who lives here.� She
stepped back, curtsied to him, and swept out of the room.

�� Behind her,
when she shut the door, the wards caught and turned sharp edges towards her.
Narcissa nodded. That was the way it should be. Until Harry learned to think he
merited protection, they would need to defend him.

�� She turned,
then, and paced deliberately down the corridor towards Lucius�s room. Draco was
with his father, which made the timing convenient for a meeting.

�� We must speak.

*

�� linagabriev:
Thank you! Narcissa continues to understand Harry better in this chapter, and
now she�s starting to feel some affection for him. It�s probably because she,
too, had to come as an outsider into the Malfoy family, instead of being born
into it.

�� And yes,
that attack is far in the future.

�� Caldonya:
Thank you! You should enjoy this chapter, then.

�� DTDY: Yes.
A lot of what happened in the original story and just �happened� was actually
the result of careful manipulation on Narcissa�s part.

�� Thrnbrooke:
Yes, but Narcissa less than the others.

�� hieisdragoness18:
Narcissa has to be careful, or they�ll ignore her because they�ll feel like she�s
lecturing. She has to have them learn from her without feeling like they�re
learning, if the makes sense.

�� SP777: I
know I can add Recommended Reading, if I want to, by going into my profile;
there�s a section to edit it in at the bottom.

�� And this
story is proceeding parallel with the events in the other one, but this one has
more chapters�more thinking makes the scenes longer!�so that�s why it seems
longer.

�� I did want
to do a Halloween one-shot, but RL interfered.
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For Their Unconquerable Souls